Manager of closed topless club says Topekans too cheap

? The general manager of a topless club that shut its doors this winter after a nine-month run says Topeka residents proved to be too tight with their money.

Lollipops Gentlemen’s Club opened in June in a new 17,000-square-foot building, across the street from another topless club.

It closed in February, and the property is now up for sale.

The owners, a group of investors from Florida, spent more than $1 million constructing and furnishing the building, and the land and building were appraised by Shawnee County last year at $1.2 million.

General manager Chris Vorhees said the owners hoped to duplicate the success of a similar club in Daytona Beach but found that the recipe didn’t work in Topeka.

He said people who came to Lollipops, one of about six similar clubs in Topeka, would watch topless dancers without spending money on them.

“People are cheap in Topeka,” Vorhees said from Florida. “They don’t want to pay for drinks; they don’t want to pay the girls. We couldn’t bring in the money to pay the bills.”

Vorhees said Lollipops had food, beverages, music, entertainers and atmosphere.

“We tried,” he said. “We had concerts, shows, parties, but they wouldn’t pay for beer. We tried to have a good time, but people would stand around and wouldn’t spend any money.”

He said people in Topeka and the Midwest are more attuned to saving their money. He said people in Daytona Beach don’t make more money than those in Topeka do, “yet they will party three and four nights a week.”

The Topeka mentality, he said, is to look for deals.

“The first thing they ask the server is, ‘What’s your special today?”‘ Vorhees said. “I never heard of a special in the bar before.”

“I have nothing against the people in Topeka,” Vorhees said. “Maybe the rest of America could learn from Topeka how to save money.”